Air Lease (AL) Risk Factors

Our business model and results are driven by our ability to acquire strategically attractive commercial passenger aircraft, profitably lease and re-lease them, and finally sell such aircraft in order to generate sufficient revenues to finance our growth and operations, pay our debt service obligations, and meet our other corporate and contractual obligations. We rely on our ability to negotiate and enter into leases with favorable lease terms and to evaluate the ability of lessees to perform their obligations to us prior to receiving the delivery of our orderbook aircraft from the manufacturers. When our leases expire or our aircraft are returned prior to the date contemplated in the lease, we bear the risk of re-leasing or selling the aircraft. Because our leases are predominantly operating leases, only a portion of an aircraft's value is recovered by the revenues generated from the lease and we may not be able to realize the aircraft's residual value after lease expiration. Our ability to profitably purchase, lease, re-lease, sell or otherwise dispose of our aircraft will depend on conditions in the airline industry and general market and competitive conditions at the time of purchase, lease and disposition. In addition to factors linked to the aviation industry in general, other factors that may affect our ability to generate adequate returns from our aircraft include the maintenance and operating history of the airframe and engines, the number of operators using the particular type of aircraft, and aircraft age. If we are unable to generate sufficient returns on our aircraft due to any of the above factors within or outside of our control, it may have an adverse impact on our net income.

Some of the agreements governing our indebtedness contain financial and non-financial covenants. For instance, our unsecured revolving credit facility requires us to comply with certain financial maintenance covenants (measured at the end of each fiscal quarter) including minimum consolidated shareholders' equity, minimum consolidated unencumbered assets, and an interest coverage test. Complying with such covenants may at times necessitate that we forego other opportunities, including incurring additional indebtedness, declaring or paying certain dividends and distributions or entering into certain transactions, investments, acquisitions, loans, guarantees or advances. Moreover, our failure to comply with any of these covenants could constitute a default and could accelerate some, if not all, of the indebtedness outstanding under such agreements and could create cross-defaults under other debt agreements, which would have a negative effect on our business and our ability to continue as a going concern. In addition, for our secured debt, if we are unable to repay such indebtedness when due and payable, the lenders under our secured debt could proceed against, among other things, the aircraft or other assets securing such indebtedness. As the result of the existence of these financial and non-financial covenants and our need to comply with them, the flexibility we have to operate our business may be limited.

We are currently subject to periodic review by independent credit rating agencies S&P, Fitch and Kroll, each of which currently maintains an investment grade rating with respect to us, and we may become subject to periodic review by other independent credit rating agencies in the future. Our ability to obtain debt financing and our cost of debt financing is dependent, in part, on our credit ratings and we cannot assure you that these credit ratings will remain in effect or that a rating will not be lowered, suspended or withdrawn. Maintaining our credit ratings depends in part on strong financial results and other factors, including the outlook of the rating agencies on our sector and on the market generally. Ratings are not a recommendation to buy, sell or hold any security, and each agency's rating should be evaluated independently of any other agency's rating. Actual or anticipated changes or downgrades in our credit ratings, including any announcement that our ratings are under review for a downgrade, could increase our borrowing costs and limit our access to the capital markets, which may adversely impact our net income and/or our ability to compete in the marketplace.

We finance our business through a combination of short-term and long-term debt financings, with most bearing interest at a fixed rate and some bearing interest at a floating rate that varies with changes in the applicable reference rate. As of December 31,2022, we had $17.2 billion of fixed rate debt and $1.6 billion of floating rate debt outstanding. Further, we have outstanding preferred stock with an aggregate stated amount of $850.0 million that currently pays dividends at a fixed rate, but will alternate to paying dividends based on a floating rate after the initial five years from issuance. Any increase in our cost of borrowing directly impacts our net income. Throughout the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022, market interest rates increased substantially, with the federal funds rate increasing from approximately 0.25% in the beginning of 2022 to approximately 4.25% at the end of 2022 and such increases may continue in the future. If the composite interest rate on our outstanding floating rate debt were to increase by 1.0%, we would expect to incur additional annual interest expense on our existing indebtedness as of December 31, 2022, of approximately $16.3 million. Our cost of borrowing is affected primarily by the market's assessment of our credit risk and fluctuations in interest rates and general market conditions. Interest rates that we obtain on our debt financings can fluctuate based on, among other things, changes in views of our credit risk, fluctuations in U.S. Treasury rates and the Secured Overnight Financing Rate ("SOFR"), as applicable, changes in credit spreads, and the duration of the debt being issued. Increased interest rates prevailing in the market at the time of our incurrence of new debt will also increase our interest expense. Moreover, if interest rates continue to rise sharply, we will not be able to immediately offset the negative impact on our net income by increasing lease rates, even if the market were able to bear the increased lease rates. Our leases are generally for multiple years with fixed lease rates over the life of the lease and, therefore, lags will exist because our lease rates with respect to a particular aircraft cannot generally be increased until the expiration of the lease. Higher interest expense and the need to offset higher borrowing costs by increasing lease rates may ultimately impact our ability to compete with other aircraft leasing companies in the marketplace, especially if those companies have lower cost of funding. Decreases in interest rates may also adversely affect our business. Since our fixed rate leases are based, in part, on prevailing interest rates at the time we enter into the lease, if interest rates decrease, new fixed rate leases we enter into may be at lower lease rates and our lease revenue will be adversely affected. In addition, certain of our debt instruments and equity securities that accrue dividends at a floating rate include the London Interbank Offered Rate ("LIBOR") as the benchmark or reference rate. The Chief Executive of the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (the "FCA"), which regulates LIBOR, publicly announced that publication of certain tenors of U.S. dollar LIBOR (including overnight and one, three, six and 12 months) will permanently cease after June 30, 2023. While all of the agreements governing our LIBOR linked debt and Series A Preferred Stock obligations that are set to mature after June 30, 2023, contain LIBOR transition fallback provisions, the lack of a standard market practice and inconsistency in fallback provisions in recent years is reflected across these agreements. For example, our Series A Preferred Stock contains LIBOR fallback provisions that will allow for the use of an alternative reference rate selected by the central bank, reserve bank, monetary authority or any similar institution that is consistent with market practice regarding a substitute for three-month LIBOR. If we determine there is no such alternative reference rate, then we must select an independent financial advisor to determine a substitute rate for LIBOR, and if an independent financial advisor cannot determine an alternative reference rate, the dividend rate, business day convention and manner of calculating dividends applicable during the fixed-rate period of the Series A Preferred Stock will be in effect. The implementation of a substitute reference rate for the calculation of interest rates under our LIBOR linked debt obligations and our Series A Preferred Stock may cause us to incur expenses in effecting the transition and may result in disputes with our lenders or holders of Series A Preferred Stock over the appropriateness or comparability to LIBOR of the substitute reference rate selected. In addition, any substitute reference rates could result in interest and dividend payments that do not correlate over time with the payments that would have been made on our indebtedness or Series A Preferred Stock, as applicable, if LIBOR was available in its current form. If any of these circumstances occur, our net income and/or our ability to compete in the marketplace may be adversely affected.

We and our subsidiaries have a significant amount of indebtedness. As of December 31, 2022, our total consolidated indebtedness, net of discounts and issuance costs, was approximately $18.6 billion and our interest payments were approximately $533.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. We expect these amounts to grow as we acquire more aircraft. Our level of debt could have important consequences, including making it more difficult for us to satisfy our debt payment obligations and requiring a substantial portion of our cash flows to be dedicated to debt service payments; limiting our ability to obtain additional financing; increasing our vulnerability to negative economic and industry conditions; increasing our interest rate risk; and limiting our flexibility in planning for and reacting to changes in our industry. Growing our fleet will require us to obtain substantial capital through additional financing, which may not be available to us on favorable terms or at all. As of December 31, 2022, we had 398 new aircraft on order with an estimated aggregate purchase price of approximately $25.5 billion. In addition to utilizing cash flow from operations to meet these commitments and to maintain an adequate level of unrestricted cash, we will need to raise additional funds by accessing committed debt facilities, securing additional financing from banks or through capital markets offerings. We also need to maintain access to the capital and credit markets and other sources of financing in order to repay or refinance our outstanding debt obligations. Our access to financing sources depends upon a number of factors over which we have limited control, including general market conditions and interest rate fluctuations; periods of unexpected market disruption and volatility; the market's view of the quality of our assets, perception of our growth potential and assessment of our credit risk; the relative attractiveness of alternative investments; and the trading prices of our debt securities and preferred and common equity securities. Depending on market conditions at the time and our access to capital, we may also have to rely more heavily on additional equity issuances or on less efficient forms of debt financing that may require a larger portion of our cash flow from operations to service, thereby reducing funds available for our operations, future business opportunities and other purposes. Further, the issuance of additional shares of our outstanding preferred stock or any other preferred stock approved by our board of directors pursuant to our charter may result in such preferred stockholders having rights, preferences or privileges senior to existing Class A common stockholders, who would not have the ability to approve such issuance. These alternative measures may not be successful and may not permit us to make required repayments on our debt or meet our aircraft purchase commitments as they come due and other cash needs. The issuance of additional equity may be dilutive to existing shareholders or otherwise may be on terms not favorable to us or existing shareholders. If we are unable to generate sufficient cash flows from operations and cannot obtain capital on terms acceptable to us, we may be forced to seek alternatives, such as to reduce or delay investments and aircraft purchases, or to sell aircraft. We also may not be able to satisfy funding requirements for any aircraft acquisition commitments then in place, which could force us to forfeit our deposits and/or expose us to potential breach of contract claims by our lessees and manufacturers. As a result of these risks and repercussions, our inability to make our debt payments and/or obtain incremental capital to fund future aircraft purchases may have a material adverse effect on our business.